How do you know if you are significant? This question lures us the wrong way, it invites us to judge ourselves on some criteria of importance – do we escape the ignominy of insignificance, it seems to ask. But no-one is truly insignificant. The worst that can happen is that you are unaware how important you are to the people in your life, and this is a far greater tragedy than not achieving notoriety, especially since fame (as any celebrity will attest) is a double-edged sword.
We strive sometimes, quite vainly, to prove to people how significant we are. To validate our intellect, our skills, our looks, whatever narcissism we have foolishly allowed to matter to our happiness. And when we are seduced by such vainglorious pursuits, we will certainly become unhappy since despite the unwavering message of the advertising industry, happiness is something that can be found only within, and all that the world of things can provide are temporary rewards and distractions.
The Jesuit priest, Anthony de Mello, whose spiritual thoughts drew upon many different traditions, said in his final meditations:
Contemplate the crowds of people who are striving might and main to become, not what Nature intended them to be – musicians, cooks, mechanics, carpenters, gardeners, inventors – but somebody, to become successful, famous, powerful; to become something that will bring, not quiet self-fulfillment, but self-glorification, self-expansion. You are looking at people who have lost their innocence because they have chosen not to be themselves but to promote themselves, to show off, even if it be only in their own eyes.
Nothing could be more irrelevant than to contemplate your significance. Let future historians argue over what was significant, it means nothing in the here and now. What makes you important is that you are you, and to your friends, to your family, to everyone who loves and values you, nothing could be more significant.
That’s all for now. I’ve queued up a Round Table post for this Wednesday coming, but I’m on holiday in Cornwall next week, and in Leipzig for Game Convention the week after, so I’ll be back in a fortnight. Have fun!
